John Derian's Apartment Is Full of Wonderful Things

Papier-mâché birds, découpage, flea-market finds from Paris, antiques, furniture he designed himself that was inspired by antiques-and more.

- BY WENDY GOODMAN

I think i was a melancholy baby,” design impresario John Derian says of his childhood growing up in Watertown, Massachusetts, the youngest of six. “I always made forts and moved things around everywhere. I had a place in the backyard, in the tree, under the porch, in the bushes. Wherever I could find a place to create, I did.”

Now all grown up, he has a kind of fort in this penthouse with a wraparound terrace and wood-burning fireplace on lower Fifth Avenue, which he bought in February 2020, right before the pandemic hit. “So for one whole year, I just used it outside and took advantage of it and really had fun,” he says.

He still hasn’t quite gotten around to thoroughly renovating away the mistakes that a previous owner had made. “This thing, which killed me—it’s just a closet that doesn’t need to be here,” Derian says, pointing to the addition that runs along one side of the living room. “It ruins the whole shape of the room, and I was thinking I could never live here with this thing because I would never have a room that made sense.”